SDSL

CoXeY · 24 May 2006 at 13:33

After searching there doesn't seem to be much info available on this so i thought i'd start a new thread.

I am currently exploring the options for using SDSL as the internet connectivity to our office. Currently we have a 2Mb/s leased line which supports all our hosting and internal traffic. We are due to co-locate our hosting services in a data centre later this year so the leased line will be an unecessary expense.

I have ruled out ADSL as a viable option becuase we will still be hosting low usage web and demonstration servers in-house and therefore require the symmetric bandwidth.

Does anyone have any advice to offer on the matter in terms of suppliers, previous experiences and the quality of service I can expect? Coming from a leased line I am concerned that 10:1 contention and no SLA will potentially disrupt services maintained in-house.

Dan.

Smudge · 24 May 2006 at 13:42

I just looked on the ZyXel modem/router connected to our 2mb SDSL & it has been connected for 76 days!!!! Nildram provide ours, it was completely painless. They took care of everything, organised BT to come out etc.

I'm not sure of the contention figures Nildram impose but its never slow & I run a couple of hardware VPN's over it aswell as an exchange server + Outlook Web Access.

If you wanted I could remote into one of the servers on it & run the ADSL guide speed test for you?

CoXeY · 24 May 2006 at 15:40

If you wanted I could remote into one of the servers on it & run the ADSL guide speed test for you?

Thanks Smudge but don't worry about the speed test

Out of interest how long have you been using Nildram and have you experienced any prolonged outages?

What's the general concensus of oppinion on this one? Would you guys host anything over SDSL (apart from internal systems)? Ideally i am looking to host our low usage services (ad hoc email marketing campaigns and one or two web servers) at our St Albans office, my motive for this is to minimise our power consumption at the data centre. We run power hungry Dell PE servers and locating these servers in the DC will require another rack...

daz · 24 May 2006 at 15:42

Don't rule out ADSL entirely - with the correct equipment you can bond two ADSL lines together. On an 8mbit service with 768kb/s upload each, that's 1.5mbit bonded together... might be worth looking into.

SLA is certainly going to be an issue, and if you require one you're just going to have to pay for a service that has one. Is there a possibility of co-locating all your services? I would recommend having a look at www.forum2.co.uk.

Edit: just noticed you had already posted over there

Smudge · 25 May 2006 at 13:07

I dont think its ever gone down yet to be honest, allthough I can see the telephone exchange from the server room

http://vamtsdsl.gotadsl.co.uk/

Click that link, dont worry about the website, its just a staging server, not the best spec in the world, but something you can guage speeds with.

As for Nildram, never had a problem with them at all, we have 3 8mb MaxDSL services with them too & they are all pretty rock solid.

derfderfley · 25 May 2006 at 14:18

CoXeY said:
Does anyone have any advice to offer on the matter in terms of suppliers, previous experiences and the quality of service I can expect? Coming from a leased line I am concerned that 10:1 contention and no SLA will potentially disrupt services maintained in-house.

Dan.

SLA's are going to be your biggest problem, you'll be lucky to get a 48-72 (2 or 3) working day SLA on a SDSL connection.

The biggest problem with all of the xDSL products is that you are relying on BT's copper as the delivery medium, and this will always be your ultimate problem with xDSL services (getting BT to fix a copper cable problem).

My advice ? call all of the major UK ISP's and ask them to beat you current LL quote, then start playing them off against each other. The market is very cutthroat at the moment and you may be pleasantly surprised what you can get out of some of them at the moment.

Also a last thing to bear in mind is if you ditch your current provider you won't be able to take you IP allocation with you (you may not be able to keep it if you move to SDSL with your current provider), so there's the additional issue of getting all of your DNS sorted out if you move provider.

iamgud · 25 May 2006 at 17:27

BT Wholesale do not offer any SLA so if any ISP who uses BT cannot offer one. Even LLU providers rely on Bt for the last mile.

My advice would be get Cable or something that doesn't require BT as an alternate line, 2 ADSL lines are no good if there is an issue at the exchange. I have seen people with a dialup rack using 20 lines as backup. Not sure how cost effective or good that is.

Uhtred · 25 May 2006 at 17:32

there is no sla but bt tend to be much quicker at sdsl faults, that's something at least...i think??

iamgud · 25 May 2006 at 19:29

Yes, I think they have a seperate team at BT.

CoXeY · 26 May 2006 at 13:45

The lack of an SLA is not particuarly appealing i must say - i wouldn't want to be around if we were without connectivity for 72 hours!! :eek:

I'm thinking the plan has to be consolidation of our services, that way we can probably get away with ADSL in the office.

That's not gonna happen overnight though so I think I'll take derfderfley's advise and start playing the ISP's off one another so negotiate the best price.

Oh and what do you guys think of the providers that are offering 1:1 contention? I can't seem to find any "big" players offering this yet so I'm not sure whether to even consider this as an option. Generally I stick to suppliers who are well reputed so the idea of going with someone like Fusion of Spitfire concerns me slightly!